Former Nintendo chairman Hiroshi Yamauchi has given an interview with Nihon Keizai Shimbun, with the legendary industry veteran giving his views on a wide range of topics with his trademark bluntness. It's over a year since Yamauchi retired from Nintendo, and was replaced by current chairman Satoru Iwata, but the outspoken ex-chairman has obviously kept closely involved with Nintendo and the industry as a whole, as the following excerpts - translated by Polygon Magazine show.
On the topic of Sony's forthcoming PlayStation Portable, Yamauchi broke the ice in typical style - stating that analysts who "think Nintendo has a monopoly over the handheld market and Sony may be able to break it" simply don't understand the games business. "New product competition in this industry is important," he explained. "Although Nintendo's core business is software, having another hardware developer will allow us to judge the superiority or inferiority of our machine. But software for both machines will be very different, and it would be a mistake to consider them in direct competition."
Yamauchi's comments in this respect are very similar to those made by SCEE boss Chris Deering at the ELSPA Games Summit in London recently, where he outlined his belief that Game Boy Advance and PlayStation Portable could in fact co-exist and complement each other, rather than existing in direct competition.
News source: The Register
